uofogator's Full Review: RIM BlackBerry 9530 Smartphone
OPENING COMMENTS
Let’s Begin, shall we? I am going to state right up front that this review will NOT be based upon a side-by-side comparison of the iPhone versus the Storm! I know that everyone is caught up in the iPhone versus Storm maelstrom! I intend on giving you the clearest impressions I can of Research In Motion’s Blackberry Storm 9530 based solely on the phone itself and not other comparable phones. I feel that comparing a phone to another phone makes a review about a certain product clouded and ambiguous at best. I am NOT here to persuade but to issue feedback. I hope to provide you with my experiences and thoughts so that YOU can do the comparing! What a concept, I know!
BACKGROUND
Allow me to provide some background information so that you will understand where I am coming from in my experiences with the Storm. I have owned the phone for several weeks now and feel that I can properly relay my impressions not just my initial impressions. This is the first Blackberry device that I have own so I am not a seasoned Blackberry user but I feel I am quickly becoming one. My previous phone was the LG EnV 9900 and I know you are screaming that I mentioned another phone but I have a legitimate reason why. The EnV has a tactile full QWERTY keyboard and my experiences transitioning to the Storm’s clickable touch-screen is a very important experience to make note of. Also, I am a Mac Addict and even this review is being typed on my MacBook. I love Apple products and am surrounded by such since my career is in professional audio. No I do not own an iPhone. The closest I have every come to even using an iPhone is simply by holding a colleague’s. Now let us get to what you came for!
VERIZON WIRELESS
I am not here to sell you on or slam Verizon Wireless. I am not here to judge wireless providers. However, I have had Verizon for over two years and I have been satisfied with my service. Sure there are always factors in choosing a wireless provider but that is not why I am here. If you really want wireless provider reviews that hold water then you should visit JD Power & Associates website. The reason I upgraded from my LG EnV to the Blackberry Storm was that I wanted a smartphone and the accompanying features and capabilities. My contract with Verizon was due to be updated and I took advantage of their New-Every-Two deal whereas I could get $100 a new phone of my choice if I renewed my contract for two more years. Before I had Verizon I had AT&T and honestly I did not like the service I was getting. I contemplated and marinated on my options for a while and decided that I was better off staying with Verizon and trying out the Storm not just “settling” for the Storm as some reviews hint at. So far my coverage expectations have been met and as far as speed of the network and such I have not a complaint. We all know that we can expect variations in coverage and speed depending on the places we find ourselves so again this is not a review of the provider.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Out of the box the Storm is truly impressive. It feels good in your hand and I really like the way it was designed. To some it may feel a bit heavy but not unreasonably heavy after all it is a smartphone. The touch-screen interface was easy to navigate although learning all the ins-and-outs of the operating system and options takes some navigation. The OS is certainly is not as organizationally convoluted as some people have mentioned. Navigating through the phone was easier than I anticipated. The screen itself is quite vivid and clear a very appealing feature I find. However you will notice that due to the clickable touch-screen a very thin-lighted outline around the edge of the screen is noticeable but not distracting or an indication of poor design. Obviously the screen cannot be permanently attached around its edges otherwise it would not be able to move to click. The several tactile buttons on the Storm are sleek and responsive. Having these buttons makes things very quick and simple. Not to mention that you can customize the side panel buttons for countless features on the phone; they are not fixed!
THE OPERATING SYSTEM
YES, there have been complaints about this. The operating system may have been rushed but everything else about the phone seems quite solid. Again, I purchased this phone in January 2009 so I did not experience the earlier versions of the OS. Touch-selecting items was quick and responsive and the click-screen responded dutifully 95% of the time. I blame the other 5% on human error, acclimation to the phone, and the OS issues. The only places where I saw notable lag was in the accelerometer. Some have commented on the lag between programs and menus. Sometimes that can occur but not to the extent of becoming annoying or a disqualifying factor in my opinion. If I had to rate the operating system 1 through 10 and 10 being perfect I would give it an 8. I am one of those that say there is always room for improvement so I would rarely give a 10. There are some minor issues within the OS that RIM can and probably will iron out.
THE CLICKABLE TOUCH-SCREEN
This really was one of the biggest selling points for me. I liked the fact that you first select what you want THEN click to confirm your selection. If you only had touch-screen selection I would imagine that you could be jumping all over the place. I could be wrong. Clicking the screen quickly feels natural and you will like its response. As far as the performance and look of the screen I am quite impressed. Watching videos (given how they were encoded) is an enjoyable experience. Having the standard 8GB of memory is great as well as having the capability of 16GB is even better.
TYPING
OK, this is a biggy! As I have stated before I had a tactile keyboard before I owned my Storm. As with anything you go slowly at first but soon over time it becomes second nature. I honestly did not have a high learning curve with typing on the Storm. This may not be the case for everyone but I feel most will quickly acclimate to this kind of keyboard. I would still have to give an edge to a tactile keyboard as far as speed. Editing documents or long emails could prove to be a bit drawn-out. Sure I made mistakes and the phone does assist you with its dictionary but I still like the Storm’s keyboard.
EMAIL AND MESSAGING
Setting up my two IMAP email accounts on this phone was very simple and easy. All it asked for was the email address and then the password and the email client was off and running. I immediately did send and receive tests for both accounts and they worked to the letter. I was quite impressed here. Sometimes I even was notified of new emails on my phone before my computer. Composing emails is again quite simple. I was certainly impressed here with the layout of the buttons and functionality of composing emails.
INTERNET BROWSING
I need to make a point here. Browsing the Internet on a smartphone is still not the same as browsing on your home or office computer. To be honest the commercials on TV for this and other smart phones are misleading. A consumer watchdog agency even scolded Apple for its misleading iPhone commercials…watch-out RIM! Sure you are able to browse the Internet in ways you could hardly do before but not as what you see on TV. There are other browsers you can download and use but I am more concerned with what comes with the phone. My impressions of the Blackberry Browser are above average but hardly exceptional. Again this could be due to acclimation but there could be improvements here as far as browser navigation and operation.
BATTERY & POWER
The specifications you get from RIM about the Storm seem to be accurate as far as talk and stand-by time. Charging the battery does not take all night thankfully. Be glad that we are in the lithium-ion battery era! Battery technology right now is growing slowly but the integration of different technologies continues to race along. Thankfully you can charge your Storm whenever you have the opportunity. I reference a great resource and website BatteryUniversity.com!! Everything you need to know is demystified and clarified there! You really don’t need to spend $40 plus dollars on a second battery. Lithium-ion batteries do not have a memory and do not require a full-discharge before recharging. A full discharge is recommended once a month to calibrate your battery but NOT necessary each time! Go to BatteryUniveristy.com! You will be enlightened.
CALL QUALITY
This is not a provider review. The quality of the Storm’s speaker is excellent! As always you can adjust the volume but I did not have trouble hearing the other person on the phone. I have been annoying my friends, relatives, and colleagues asking if they can hear me well and they all have responded yes. However I have one of those voices that even a whisper is carried great distances. The speakerphone on this phone seems to work better than most I have bared witness to.
SOUND QUALITY
EXTERNALLY speaking the quality of the sound is minimal. You can’t expect an epic performance from such a small phone speaker anyway. You start playing music or ringtones with a lot of bass and low-end and all you will get when you turn it up halfway is expected distortion. When I create my own ringtones I always filter or dump all the bass so that the speaker does not try to reproduce those impossible bass notes and allows the phone to ring loud without distorting as much. You can’t expect much here. INTERNALLY I was impressed. As with all complex electrical devices there is always a level of noise that is caused my interference with the components that make up the device. Everything has noise whether electrical or otherwise. Given all the radio devices on this phone the sound quality of the music from the Storm is impressive. I was expecting a lot of low-amplitude noise added during playback but what was there was minimal. I listened by using music tracks that I am more than familiar with and know how they should sound. Then I listen through playback devices such as a couple headphones, a few mono headsets, as well as stereo audio systems.
SYNCHRONIZATION
Again I am using a MacBook with my Storm. As I researched-out the Storm I knew that there were two applications that would allow me to synchronize my contacts, calendar, tasks, music, pictures, etc. The first one is PocketMac from Blackberry and it is free. The second is MarkSpace’s Missing Sync for Blackberry that costs approximately $40. I obviously tried the free method first! I downloaded and installed the program easily enough. I updated the program as well as the drivers to recognize the Storm. All this was met with failure. I took a few days to look into why this was and all the solutions from forums, tech support, etc never helped me out. When I decided to spend the money I was met with instant success! If you are using a Mac and PocketMac does not work Missing Sync is well worth it. With this you can customize your phone with your own ringtones and wallpapers as well. I have not attempted to sync to a PC.
CAMERA
Simply put this is the best camera on a phone I have found…period. I am not saying that this camera is comparable to a full-on decent quality digital camera. I am saying that it is the best camera I have seen on a phone. You should be satisfied here. The same goes for the video quality. Taking video and pictures is simple and easy. And again having that 8GB microSD card is great.
VISUAL VOICE MAIL
This is an add-on feature that you subscribe to but I love it! If you get several voice messages this is for you! Dialing in, pushing more than a few buttons, and wading through all your voice messages (especially if you save some) eventually can be a pain. We have all been there saying Come On Come On while listening to our voice messages. Now you can see who left you a voice message just like who sent you a text message. It’s all laid out for you and playing your messages is like operating a music player. This subscription-based feature in my opinion is more than worth it!
WHAT I DID NOT USE
I have not really been too big into downloading and playing games on the Storm. This I feel will be more subjective from person to person and also depends on the games. I also have not participated in any instant messaging applications on the Storm. I am really not into IMing and most of my communication methods with everyone I know are satisfied by phone, text message, or email.
APPLICATION STORE
The application store for RIM has not been officially unveiled. According to RIM their official application store is set to fully open for business March 2009. There are some applications for purchase out there but this is an experience that will have to wait on and I will update later. This is a bit disappointing as far as timing and release of the Storm.
With a stunning display 3G (CDMA 2000) network support web capability and advanced multimedia functions the BlackBerry Storm 9530 satisfies both c...More at Newegg.com
BlackBerry Storm 9530 3G Smartphone (Verizon): With a unique touch screen and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities, the BlackBerry Storm smartphone ma...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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